This invention concerns a shaving razor having a main component or handle assembly pivotally carrying a blade carrier carrying one or more blades with elongated cutting edges, and deals more particularly with improvements in the pivotal connection between the main component and the blade carrier, in a mechanism for spring biasing the blade carrier in its pivotal movement relative to the main component, and in a replaceable blade cartridge which includes the blade carrier and the one or more blades.
In the case of shaving razors with pivotal blade carriers, it is known to achieve the pivotal support for the carrier through the use of cooperating arcuate surfaces on the blade carrier and on the main component or handle assembly. An example of such known razor is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,361 to Richard et al. In this Richard et al. razor, the blade carrier at each of its ends is pivotally connected with the handle assembly by a laterally inwardly extending projection having concentric radially inner and outer arcuate surfaces, and which projection is received in an arcuately shaped groove of the handle assembly, with radially inner and outer surfaces of the groove capturing the projection and restraining it to generally pivotal movement relative to the handle assembly. The connection between the blade carrier and the handle assembly is, however, a relatively loose one and no biasing forces are applied to the blade carrier to overcome the looseness in the connection between the carrier and the handle assembly or to urge the carrier to some limit position and to resiliently resist its movement away from such limit position. Also, the structure of the pivotal connection is one which does not easily lend itself to having the blade carrier be part of a replaceable blade cartridge.
The general object of the invention is, therefore, to provide a shaving razor with a pivotal blade carrier wherein the structure of the connection between the pivotal blade carrier and the main component or handle assembly is of a low cost simple construction, which results in the blade carrier being firmly held without looseness to the main component, which provides for the blade carrier being spring biased in its movement about the pivot axis relative to the main component, which allows the blade carrier to be easily made as part of an expendable cartridge replaceable with respect to the main component, and which allows the use of a simple mechanism for ejecting a used blade cartridge from the main component.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention and from the accompanying drawings and claims.